SKY climbs back to his show-stopping best at the Wankhede Premium

Suryakumar Yadav's explosive innings leads Mumbai Indians to victory with powerful sweeps and trademark swagger at Wankhede.

At the Wankhede on Sunday night, the finish came with a flourish. With M.S. Dhoni, the man who immortalised picture-perfect climaxes at this venue with that shot over long-on on the night of the 2011 ODI World Cup final, stationed behind the stumps, Suryakumar Yadav dispatched Matheesha Pathirana for two consecutive sixes to complete a nine-wicket trouncing of Chennai Super Kings inside 16 overs.

Pathirana, armed with searing pace and a slingy action, had erred a trifle with his execution, dishing out deliveries that were a few inches short of the blockhole. It was enough for the 34-year-old, standing deep in his crease with his front leg out of the way, to exercise a flamboyant swing of the bat and clear the extra-cover and long-off boundaries with a touch of trademark swagger.

He finished unbeaten on 68 off 30 deliveries, having forged an 114-run unbroken partnership with Rohit Sharma (76 n.o., 45b, 4x4, 6x6) to deliver a third victory on the trot for Mumbai Indians. For Rohit to register a significant score after accruing merely 82 runs in his first six outings is understandably headline-grabbing — there’s also the selection of India’s squad for the Test tour of England looming — but if MI is to build on this run and stake a claim for the playoffs, it is arguably Suryakumar returning to his vintage best that is even more substantial.

To say that Suryakumar, who has been retained in Grade-B of BCCI’s annual player contracts for 2024-25, wasn’t at the pinnacle of his powers in previous matches may seem strange when he is third on the list of highest run-getters this season — his 333 runs in eight games have come at an average of 55.5 and a strike rate of 162.43. But before his sublime display on Sunday, there is some validity to the claim that the man from Mumbai hadn’t set the stage on fire in this edition to the extent we have come to expect. It is a reflection of the stratospheric benchmark that SKY, a moniker given to him by current India head coach Gautam Gambhir during their erstwhile association with Kolkata Knight Riders, has set by virtue of his game-changing exploits over the past few years.

That he was operating a notch or two below his usual capacity was most evident in MI’s defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede a fortnight ago. Chasing 222 for victory on a batting belter, he was visibly out of sorts, repeatedly mistiming shots and offering chances that the RCB fielders spurned, and laboured his way to a 26-ball 28. The tame effort led to MI falling well behind the asking rate and eventually losing by 12 runs despite the pyrotechnics of Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya in the late overs.

In the months leading up to this IPL season, Suryakumar’s run-scoring graph for India witnessed a slight dip.

Since becoming captain of India’s T20I set-up in July 2024, following the exit of Rohit from the shortest format after the euphoric T20 World Cup triumph (Suryakumar, of course, played a big part with a spectacular catch in the final over of the final), the ace batter has just collected 258 runs in 14 innings at 18.42. Two ducks and five other scores in single digits have been added to his name in this period. Furthermore, his highest score is 21 in his last eight innings. In ICC’s T20I batting rankings, for what it’s worth, he has slipped from first to fifth.